Produced by: Tarun Mishra
New data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveals that the "hot Jupiter" exoplanet HD 189733 b likely has an atmosphere that smells like rotten eggs due to the presence of hydrogen sulfide.
HD 189733 b is a gas giant located around 64 light-years away in the Vulpecula constellation. It orbits its star at a distance 13 times closer than Mercury orbits the sun, completing one orbit every two days.
The exoplanet's surface can reach a scorching 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit (925 degrees Celsius), hot enough to melt certain types of rocks into magma.
Previous observations indicated that HD 189733 b likely experiences rains of molten glass blown sideways by winds reaching up to 500 mph (800 km/h), which is about three times faster than a Category 5 hurricane on Earth.
In a study published on July 8 in Nature, researchers used JWST to measure the levels of carbon dioxide, oxygen, water, and heavy metals in the exoplanet's atmosphere, discovering the presence of hydrogen sulfide.
Hydrogen sulfide, a toxic gas that smells like rotten eggs, is important because it indicates the presence of sulfur, a key element for building complex molecules and vital for most lifeforms on Earth.
Although the extreme conditions on HD 189733 b make it unlikely to harbor life, the discovery of hydrogen sulfide suggests that other distant planets with similar atmospheres might have the potential to support life.
Researchers plan to use JWST to study other "hot Jupiters" to determine if they also contain hydrogen sulfide, which could provide further insights into planetary formation and the potential for life elsewhere in the universe.
The James Webb Space Telescope has advanced the study of exoplanets significantly. It can detect various chemicals across the cosmos, including greenhouse gases, water around distant stars, and carbon from the early universe. JWST's instruments even hinted at the possibility of life on ocean-covered exoplanet K2-18 b by detecting dimethyl sulfide, a molecule previously only known to be created by living organisms on Earth.